May I begin (and continue) Yoga

At the beginning of the month Anna and I discussed our goals for the month of May.

She’s epic so obviously she had lofty goals including, increasing strength in her bench press, strict press, deadlift and squat when we re-test, string kipping t2b’s, nail pistols and attend both gymnastics and barbell club every week.

I had less lofty ambitions;

Continue to run at least once a week.
Considering how hard it was when I started running in preparation for WOD1 in the playoffs, I figure it’s easier to keep running than to stop and start again should the need arise AND I’m kind of getting to the point where I don’t hate it (since I’m super close to being able to run without dying).

Eat a strict paleo diet
Failed on day 3, although I did make it to about half way through playoff day before succumbing to the lollies being passed around during “team bonding” AND Suz brownie was totally worth failing for. 😉

and (getting around to the reason for todays blog post)

Do at least one yoga class per week.
So far, so good. And since I was on a bit of a yoga buzz when I came across the #mayibeginyoga challenge on Instagram I decided I’d also add that to my to do list.

I’ve seen many yoga challenges on Instagram, in fact you can usually find a handful of challenges each month. Most I’ve seen are way beyond my meager skill level, all fancy handstands with legs in positions I can’t imagine normal people’s legs can naturally achieve. 😉

The first two days were a doddle, I was on a “high” because I was going to knock this challenge on the head AND even if it’s just one pose a day, at least it’s some yoga – right? Let’s put it this way, it’s more yoga than I’m currently managing.

Issy and I completed Day 1 as a team and after learning that one pose was not enough for Issy and she made me stay outside and do pose after pose I decided to complete Day 2 as a solo effort.

Day 3 was the Saturday of the CrossfitHPU Playoffs and I was otherwise disposed. I had every intention of completing my tree pose at some stage during the day but the day got away from me, so much so that I didn’t even take any photos and we all know that is not like me at all!

So Saturday was a fail, Sunday I could barely move and even if I wanted too (which I honestly didn’t) there wasn’t going to be any back bending going on which was the requirement for the Day4 pose so that was another fail. Monday rolled around, I was feeling somewhat normal and I even did the early morning endurance class at HPU then I got “the text” from James about his Dad and I rushed straight home with coffee and a shoulder for him to cry on.

The rest of the week was a blur, hastily arranging who would go across to the UK, when they would go and for how long. In the end we decided that James would go with Elias, that way he could stay over there till the middle of June when Elias needs to start school and I would stay here with Issy. Suffice to say there were no pretty yoga pictures being created. In fact I’d deemed myself a complete failure, but if competing in the playoffs taught me anything it was to pick yourself up and keep going ..

I guess I had some catching up to do!

I actually quite enjoyed catch up day, it was like my own mini (as in myself alone) yoga class. I’m guessing it’s similar to what real Yogi’s do on a regular basis, their “practice”.

Once again I missed the poses that fell on the weekend and played catch up on the Monday which will probably happen for the remainder of this months #mayibeginyoga challenge. But for the rest of the week I’ve completed the challenge poses on the actual day – crazy I know .. who would have thought it.